About

C.S.E. Cooney lives and writes in a well-appointed Rhode Island garret, right across the street from a Victorian Strolling Park. She is an audiobook narrator, the singer/songwriter Brimstone Rhine, and author of World Fantasy Award-winning Bone Swans: Stories (Mythic Delirium 2015). Her short fiction and poetry can be found at Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, Apex, Uncanny, Lakeside Circus, Black Gate, Papaveria Press, GigaNotoSaurus, Goblin Fruit, Clockwork Phoenix 3 & 5, The Mammoth Book of Steampunk, Rich Horton’s and Paula Guran’s Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy anthologies, and elsewhere.

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21 responses to “About”

Hi there! The Bill Memorial Library is interested in having you do a storytelling program. (We met through Flock and I alerted the library director to your recent publication of Bone Swans.) Do you mind shooting me an email and we can talk particulars?
Thanks!
Karla

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My name is Renne. I’m an editor of Science Fiction World Magazine(China). I want to introduce your story to Chinese readers by reprinting it on our magazine. Could you perhaps drop me an email so that we can talk about details? I would be honored to hear back from you.

Congratulations for the Nebula Nomination!
My name is Renne. I’m an editor of Science Fiction World Magazine(China). I want to introduce your story to Chinese readers by reprinting it on our magazine. Could you perhaps drop me an email so that we can talk about details? I would be honored to hear from you.

This seems as good a place as any to drop you a fan letter. I am an IP attorney, but unlike many of the posters I’m not looking for anything from you–just wanted to express my appreciation for your work. There is so much dross in sci-fi and fantasy today that I approach any new author I haven’t heard of with more than a little trepidation. I am pleased to say, however, that the Bone Swans and the collection of stories that came with it were a breath of fresh air. And each so different! As you sped off in a new direction with each story, I found myself quickly sucked in. Too many sci-fi and fantasy writers milk their universes dry of any joy or freshness, but I found myself wanting to hear more about Dora, and Beatrice, and the Milkmaid, and your other characters, even though their stories were self-contained. Keep up the good work!

I am so pleased that Bone Swans gave you some joy; I too sometimes have extended plans for the characters beyond the scope of the story. Even if they never get written, it pleases me to imagine their lives (or afterlives) spinning out and out, having adventures and meeting friends I haven’t even yet conceived of. Thank you so much for dropping me a line, and for reading! I hope you find more gold than dross in your quest for a good read.

Dear Ms. Cooney..
Just a message to let you know how much I enjoyed your short story ‘Braiding the Ghosts’ in BSF&F 2011. This is of course several years old at this point, but as the saying goes, “It’s new to me.” Nashville and Knoxville are both blessed with one of the best curated used book stores in the world (McKay’s) and I often find treasures in those aisles. To speak from a personal level, I am a disabled writer and ‘outsider’ musician, and I’m often well-behind where I’d like to be, artistically. So, perhaps to make up for my own slow creative output (I tell myself it is simply for ‘research’), I read a great deal. Your incredible story reminded me of some magical concoction of Peter Pan, Doris Burn’s ‘Summerfolk’, Neil Gaimon’s ‘Graveyard’ book, and my own memories of exploring my grandmother’s antebellum attic. Except of course that its magic is unique. Your story, I’m honest enough to admit, inspired a bit of good-natured jealousy and pangs for young years wasted not knowing what I was meant to do, as well as inspiring me with your work ethic. For years I have wondered if I could be writer of stories AND poems, a musician AND painter, et cetera –all and at once. I see I can be, as you are! Thanks for the wonderful experience.
Gregory Purvis aka James Edgar Purvis

Thank you so much for your letter! I am sorry it took me so long to reply!

I too am often very far behind where I want to be. I have a bit of background in voice training, but was never trained as what I’d consider a “legitimate musician.” I have very simple tunes in my head; if I have a strength, it’s in lyrics. I am frustrated by not being able to do all the things I want to do–not only well, or competently, but brilliantly! But I suppose that forces me into collaboration, which I think is a kind of magic in and of itself, though a different kind of hard work.

I remember the day I came up with the idea of “Braiding the Ghosts.” I wanted it to be a short story, but like so many of my “short” stories, it grew long and longer. I submitted it many times, with many rejection slips. Finally Mike Allen accepted it, though with a great deal of fine edits. A great editor is worth his weight in saffron! I was so honored to fall under his aegis.

I hope you continue to explore and research, and most of all–to create. Like Sondheim writes in “Sunday in the Park with George”: “Anything you do, let it come from you.
Then it will be new.
Give us more to see…”

Dear Ms. Cooney: I am Robert Rodriquez. We spoke on the radio show. I am interested in reviewing your collection “Bone Swans”, and I have ballad books to send you and information on ballad resources. My telephone number is (212) 862-3526 any evening between 7pm and midnight. My email address is RodriquezRobert81@yahoo.com Thank You. Robert

Hi, Robert! Sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you. If you want to review a copy of Bone Swans, you might apply to my publisher Mike Allen at Mythic Delirium (mythicdelirium.com) for an electronic copy, or wait until the Audio Book version comes out at the end of February through Tantor Media, which will be available both on CD and on Audible as a download. The “Ballads from the Distant Stars” project is not something I’m working on currently, but would appreciate book titles so I can add to my library when the time comes. I’m not much one for phone calls! Take care and thank you for your interest!

MY GOODNESS I WROTE THAT A LONG TIME AGO. Gosh, will there be a CAVEAT? But sure thing–I shall send you an email, and you can tell me more about what that entails. Thanks for reaching out — C. S. E. Cooney